Maryland Task Force's Recommendations

Started by JeanneK • 4 replies • 1845 views

💬 Join us to post & get advice from 50,000 HOA & Condo leaders.

⚡ Takes 30 seconds

Already a member? Log in

JeanneK (Maryland)
Posts: 12

Posted:

The Maryland Task Force on Common Ownership Communities has issued its Final Report. The recommendations are:
-Establishment of a state approved web site and written materials with current HOA/Condo information.
-A Common Ownership Community Ombudsman in each county or area without dispute resolution procedures.
-Alternative dispute resolution be recommended and available.
-Local governments should report violations of state law to OAG for enforcement actions.
-Lessening the percentage needed to change governing documents.
-Reserve studies be done every 5 years.
-Management companies be licensed and bonded.
-All new and existing state laws be applied to condos/HOAs (no grandfathering.)
-The unit insurance deductible be raised to $10,000.
-A priority lien of 6 months, suspension of privileges of deliquent homeowners.
-Formulation of a checklist of resale documents; shortening of time requirements.
This Report is on-line on http://www.dhcd.state.md.us/website/taskforce/taskforce.aspx
What do you think?

GeraldT1 (<Not Specified>)
Posts: 519

Posted:

JeanneK,

My thoughts are that the percentage needed to change gov. docs. should be kept the same or increased, not lessened, additionally the insurance deductible sounds very high, my COA is $2,500 per event.

GeraldT1
NNJ

GlenL (Ohio)
Posts: 5,491

Posted:

Gerald, I just took a look at it and it sounds as if they are on the right track. Of course a task force's recommendation and the law the state passes after the lobbyists get through are often two very different animals.

The reduction to change Declarations is just to 66% instead of 75% which considering how hard it is to get a quorum sometimes is not unreasonable,IMHO. The insurance is not a mandated $10,000.00 deductible but a raise in the cap from $1,000.00.

Studies show that 5 out of 4 people have problems with fractions

DwightT (Idaho)
Posts: 664

Posted:

Posted By GlenL on 12/27/2006 11:11 AM

The reduction to change Declarations is just to 66% instead of 75% which considering how hard it is to get a quorum sometimes is not unreasonable,IMHO.

I don't think the 66% vs 75% approval has anything to do with quorum at meetings. It may depend on how the Declarations are worded, but to change ours we have to have 67% of all homeowners approve the change. If 51% of a quorum meeting agrees to a change, we would still have to go around door-to-door to bring the total number of approvals up to 67%.

On the other hand, we can approve the budget and elect Board members with a simple majority of quorum. For us quorum is defined as 60% of homeowners, or if this quorum is not met at the scheduled meeting, the meeting may be rescheduled, and at the rescheduled meeting, 10% constitutes a quorum. This lets us move forward with elections and budget approvals when we can't get people to show up, but we still can't change the Declarations without the full 67% approval.

I agree that it should be as difficult as possible to change the Declarations. This is the contract that we all agreed to when we bought the property (whether we actually read them or not), and it would be unfair to somebody who bought into this neighborhood because of a certain provision to then have that provision changed.

JeanneK (Maryland)
Posts: 12

Posted:

A point of clarification. There are older Maryland communities that require a 100% vote to change anything in the declaration. Some have ethnic restrictions written into them and although these restrictions are unenforceable, the communities are embarassed to have them there. This is what lowering the percentage was meant to help. However, I agree with many of the comments that say it shouldn't be easy to change certain things in a declaration. The report does say "to the extent that current statutes require unanimous consent for certain amendments (such as changes in unit boundaries or in the percentage interest charged or allocated to any given unit), or approval of more tha 66 2/3%, those statutory requirements of unanimity or of a super-majority vote should continue in effect.

🎯 You've read this entire discussion

Join the conversation with 50,000 HOA & Condo Leaders:

✓ Ask follow-up questions
✓ Share your experience
✓ Get expert advice
✓ Access 350,000 discussions

Create Free Account →

⚡ Takes 30 seconds

Already a member? Log in here